Community Calendar

The Highland Gallery will showcase the first exhibit of the new school year of selected work by previous students from the past 15 years from September 7 to October 29 at Highland Community College in the Ferguson Fine Arts Center, 2998 W. Pearl City Rd, Freeport, Ill. <br/><br/>Displayed pieces are from Drawing I and II; Life Drawing; Two-Dimensional Design; Three-Dimensional Design, and Ceramic courses. This exhibition is designed to recognize artists who enhanced their art skills while attending HCC and to celebrate their visual contribution to the community. <br/><br/>The Highland Gallery is free and open to the public. For more information about the exhibit or the Highland Gallery, contact Bill Buehler at 815-599-3490 or bill.buehler@highland.edu or go to highland.edu/gallery.

The Clayworkers’ Guild of Illinois is proud to announce their 2021 Annual Members Show. The show will run from October 1 – 30, 2021 in the McHenry County College (MCC) Art Gallery, which is located on the main level of MCC, Building A, adjacent to the library. <br/><br/>The Clayworkers’ Guild is an organization of artists who use clay as an expressive medium. They strive to aid, encourage, advise, and work together to support each other’s endeavors. Through various activities, the Clayworkers’ Guild serves the community by supporting exhibits and workshops, for both its membership and the public, in all aspects of ceramics and related arts. <br/><br/>For more about the Clayworkers’ Guild, visit www.clayworkersguild.com. For more about art gallery exhibits at MCC, visit www.mchenry.edu/artgallery.

Stemming from the roots that gave rise to Blues, Jazz and Gospel music, My Way: African American Art from the Black South surveys a collection of 156 works of art representing the styles and practices of this incredibly unique and inspired group of 46 artists including 8 original quilts constructed by the Gee's Bend quilters in rural Boykin, Alabama. <br/><br/>Artists include: Thornton Dial, Purvis Young, Lonnie Holley, Mary T. Smith, Joe Light, Lorraine Pettway, Mose Tolliver, and more.

The Highland Gallery will showcase the first exhibit of the new school year of selected work by previous students from the past 15 years from September 7 to October 29 at Highland Community College in the Ferguson Fine Arts Center, 2998 W. Pearl City Rd, Freeport, Ill. <br/><br/>Displayed pieces are from Drawing I and II; Life Drawing; Two-Dimensional Design; Three-Dimensional Design, and Ceramic courses. This exhibition is designed to recognize artists who enhanced their art skills while attending HCC and to celebrate their visual contribution to the community. <br/><br/>The Highland Gallery is free and open to the public. For more information about the exhibit or the Highland Gallery, contact Bill Buehler at 815-599-3490 or bill.buehler@highland.edu or go to highland.edu/gallery.

The Clayworkers’ Guild of Illinois is proud to announce their 2021 Annual Members Show. The show will run from October 1 – 30, 2021 in the McHenry County College (MCC) Art Gallery, which is located on the main level of MCC, Building A, adjacent to the library. <br/><br/>The Clayworkers’ Guild is an organization of artists who use clay as an expressive medium. They strive to aid, encourage, advise, and work together to support each other’s endeavors. Through various activities, the Clayworkers’ Guild serves the community by supporting exhibits and workshops, for both its membership and the public, in all aspects of ceramics and related arts. <br/><br/>For more about the Clayworkers’ Guild, visit www.clayworkersguild.com. For more about art gallery exhibits at MCC, visit www.mchenry.edu/artgallery.

The Northern Illinois University Art Museum’s exhibition Refuge and Refugee as well as The Art of Surviving: The Journey of the Karen Refugees in Illinois organized by the Center for Burma Studies at NIU opens in the Art Museum’s Altgeld Hall galleries runs through November 12. <br/><br/>The exhibitions examine refugee experiences through recreations of home, glimpses of refugee camps, artifacts, textiles, oral histories and photographs as well as contemporary art media grappling with international refugee and immigration crises. <br/><br/>Refuge and Refugee -- <br/>The work of ten artists including one from the Museum’s permanent collection are presented in an examination of the global humanitarian crises as displaced persons forced to flee their native countries attempt to find refuge elsewhere. <br/>The artists, moved by current events and news reports, express their shock, horror, and critique of government polices as well as compassion for those impacted by these measures. Several of the artists with immigrant backgrounds relate their own struggles with identity to the inner struggle of missing home and attempting to adapt to a new land. <br/>Artists were selected from a national call for entry by the exhibition advisory committee and include: Luciana Abait, Karen Albanese Campbell, Yolanda del Amo, Tere Garcia, Judith Joseph, Rebecca Keller, Eddy A. López, Stephen Walt and Kathy Weaver. <br/><br/>The Art of Surviving: The Journey of the Karen Refugees in Illinois -- <br/>This exhibition is based on work done by NIU PhD and MA students who either lived within the refugee camps along the Burma-Thai border or who worked with Illinois Karen Refugee communities for the last 15 years. <br/>The exhibit looks at life in Burma, life in the refugee camp and life in the United States. <br/>The Karen, an ethnic group in southern Burma/Myanmar, has been in conflict with the government since 1949, first calling for an independent state and now representation in national government. During the decades-long conflict and violent military persecution many Karen escaped to refugee camps and/or resettled to a third country. <br/>The exhibition ties the minority Karen refugee experience to a global perspective, engaging visitors in a critical dialogue on forced migration and displacement and what visitors can do to advocate for local refugee communities. <br/><br/>A full calendar of events including in-person, hybrid, Zoom virtual program URLs, as well as current COVID-19 visitor guidance may be found by visiting niu.edu/artmuseum.

The work of ten artists including one from the Museum’s permanent collection are presented in an examination of the global humanitarian crises as displaced persons forced to flee their native countries attempt to find refuge elsewhere. The artists, moved by current events and news reports, express their shock, horror, and critique of government polices as well as compassion for those impacted by these measures. Several of the artists with immigrant backgrounds relate their own struggles with identity to the inner struggle of missing home and attempting to adapt to a new land. Artists were selected from a national call for entry by the exhibition advisory committee and include: Luciana Abait, Karen Albanese Campbell, Yolanda del Amo, Tere Garcia, Judith Joseph, Rebecca Keller, Eddy A. López, Stephen Walt and Kathy Weaver. Image: Luciana Abait, Black Sky, 2018. Photograph on cotton rag paper, from the Displacement Series. (30” x 40”). Courtesy the artist.

This exhibition is based on work done by NIU PhD and MA students who either lived within the refugee camps along the Burma-Thai border or who worked with Illinois Karen Refugee communities for the last 15 years. The exhibit looks at life in Burma, life in the refugee camp and life in the United States. The Karen, an ethnic group in southern Burma/Myanmar, has been in conflict with the government since 1949 first calling for an independent state and now representation in national government. During the decades-long conflict and violent military persecution many Karen escaped to refugee camps and/or resettled to a third country. The exhibition ties the minority Karen refugee experience to a global perspective, engaging visitors in a critical dialogue on forced migration and displacement and what visitors can do to advocate for local refugee communities. Photograph of Karen Refugee Camp at the Thai Border by Darby Findley.

Stemming from the roots that gave rise to Blues, Jazz and Gospel music, My Way: African American Art from the Black South surveys a collection of 156 works of art representing the styles and practices of this incredibly unique and inspired group of 46 artists including 8 original quilts constructed by the Gee's Bend quilters in rural Boykin, Alabama. <br/><br/>Artists include: Thornton Dial, Purvis Young, Lonnie Holley, Mary T. Smith, Joe Light, Lorraine Pettway, Mose Tolliver, and more.

The Highland Gallery will showcase the first exhibit of the new school year of selected work by previous students from the past 15 years from September 7 to October 29 at Highland Community College in the Ferguson Fine Arts Center, 2998 W. Pearl City Rd, Freeport, Ill. <br/><br/>Displayed pieces are from Drawing I and II; Life Drawing; Two-Dimensional Design; Three-Dimensional Design, and Ceramic courses. This exhibition is designed to recognize artists who enhanced their art skills while attending HCC and to celebrate their visual contribution to the community. <br/><br/>The Highland Gallery is free and open to the public. For more information about the exhibit or the Highland Gallery, contact Bill Buehler at 815-599-3490 or bill.buehler@highland.edu or go to highland.edu/gallery.